Notes
Introduction: The Battle of Ohio
1. Reginald Fields, “Ohio Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Issue 2, Dealing a Blow to Gov. Kasich,” The Plain Dealer, Nov. 8, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012.
2. Amy Davidson, “Remember Montana: The Supreme Court Won’t Reexamine Citizens United,” The New Yorker, June 25, 2012. Frontline has done an excellent investigation of the Montana case, Big Sky, Big Money. For more on Montana’s history of corporate domination, see Laura Mercier, Anaconda: Labor, Community and Culture in Montana’s Smelter City (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001); Michael P. Malone, The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864–1906 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981); C.B. Glasscock, The War of the Copper Kings: The Builders of Butte and the Wolves of Wall Street (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1966); C.P. Connolly, The Devil Learns to Vote: The Story of Montana (New York: Covici, Friede, 1938).
3. Kent State University, another AAUP-unionized faculty, and UC are about the same size.
4. Reginald Fields, “Republican John Kasich Victorious in Ohio; Jobs Message Overcomes Wall Street Baggage,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 3, 2010
Chapter 1: The Storm Comes
1. When Ohio’s economy began to recover in 2011, many perceptive political observers called it the “Strickland recovery,” since Gov. Kasich’s impact on the economy, however negligible, could not begin to appear until 2012, and by then the national recovery and auto bailouts had begun to drive the state’s recovery.
2. Lukens was eventually elected to the U.S. Congress and served until 1990. Criminal sexual charges ended his political career; he was convicted of the misdemeanor crime of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for paying a 16-year-old female for sex. He refused to resign but lost the 1990 Republican primary to John Boehner. While serving out the remaining months of his term, Lukens was accused of fondling an elevator operator in the Capital building and sentenced to 30 days in jail, psychological counseling, and testing for venereal disease. In 1996, Lukens was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in connection to the House banking scandal during his term in Congress.
3. R.W. Apple, Jr., “A Republican with Rough Edges,” New York Times Magazine, April 26, 1998, l; John Hicks, “Fact Checking the Governor’s RNC Speeches,” The Washington Post, Aug. 30, 2012,
4. Herbert Hoover, “The Consequences of the Proposed New Deal,” Madison Square Garden, Oct. 21, 1932, and “The Crisis to Free Men,” Republican National Convention, June 10, 1936, both available on the Pepperdine University Law School website, Faculty Research, The New Deal.
5. John Kasich, Courage Is Contagious: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the Face of America (New York: Doubleday, 1995) 12.
6. There have been efforts to redeem Hoover’s reputation, too often coming from the right-wing fringe seeking to justify flawed policies today. For a balanced historical effort, see Joan Hoff Wilson, Herbert Hoover: The Forgotten Progressive (Boston: Little Brown, 1975).
7. Laura Bischoff and Christopher Mangan, “Deep Cuts, Privatization Fill Kasich’s First Budget,” Dayton Daily News, March 16, 2011.
8. Staff report, “Schneider to Seek 7th Ohio Seat,” Middletown Journal, Jan. 6, 2010.
9. Barry Horstman, “Shannon Jones: The Force Behind Senate Bill 5,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 3, 2011.
10. Ibid.
11. Politics blog, “Niehaus, Jones Picked as Senate Leaders,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 30, 2010.
12. Rory Ryan, “Niehaus Sworn in as Ohio Senate President,” The Highland County Press, Jan. 2, 2011.
13. Ibid.
14. Jim Siegel and Darrell Rowland, “House Cozy with Charter School Lobby,” The Columbus Dispatch, June 5, 2011; Joe Guillen, “Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder Won’t Apologize for Joke That Obama Should Be Jailed,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 22, 2012. For more on Speaker Batchelder’s financial backers, see the National Institute on Money in State Politics’s website, and Christine Jindra, “Ohio Probes Campaign Spending by Charter School Operator David Brennan,” The Dayton Daily News, April 10, 2008.
15. For more on the doubts surrounding Bush’s victory in Ohio in 2004, see Mark Crispin Miller, “None Dare Call It Stolen: Ohio, the Election, and America’s Servile Press,” Harper’s Magazine, August 2005.
16. Reginald Fields, “McGee Brown Highlights Ohio’s Education Ranking, but the State’s Grades Are Less Flattering,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 25, 2010.
17. Most of this material is taken nearly verbatim from a Policy Matters Ohio fact sheet, “Policy Matters Testifies on Gov. Taft’s Tax Reform Proposal,” May 23, 2005.
18. Jim Siegel, “Kasich’s Budget Slashes Aid to Local Governments,” The Columbus Dispatch, March 15, 2011.
19. There will inevitably be an effort by conservatives to disparage Policy Matters Ohio as a “liberal think tank.” I would encourage readers to carefully examine Policy Matters’ reports and judge them on their own merits without applying ideological blinders.
20. “Wealthiest Ohioans Gain Most from Proposed Tax Changes,” Policy Matters Ohio, March 7, 2005.
21. “The Taft Plan for Income Tax Cuts Is Not Good for Ohio Because. . . ,” Policy Matters Ohio.
22. Jon P. Honeck, testimony to the Ohio Senate Ways and Means Committee, March 16, 2005, Policy Matters Ohio.
23. “Gov. Taft’s Plan to Overhaul Tax System Fails to Resonate with Many Business Execs,” Business First, April 7, 2005.
24. “Tax Policy Shortchanges Public Services; Job Growth Remains Anemic,” April 24, 2007, Policy Matters Ohio.
25. “The 2005 Tax Overhaul and Ohio’s Economy,” Jan. 15, 2009, Policy Matters Ohio.
26. Laurence Mishel, “Tax Cuts Won’t Create Jobs,” Economic Policy Institute website, July 10, 2009; Bill Harris, “Tax Cuts Don’t Create Jobs,” Forbes, Nov. 5, 2012 (accessed Jan. 9, 2013).
27. William Grieder, “The Education of David Stockman,” Dec. 1981, The Atlantic.
28. Jackie Calmes, “John Kasich Wields the Mighty Budget Axe Granted by Gingrich,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 27, 1995.
29. Ibid.
30. Sam Shawver, “Noble County Solar Farm Still in the Works,” The Marietta Times, April 2, 2012. Groundbreaking for the project has been put off until the summer of 2013 because of difficulty in getting approval from state agencies. But the cost of the project has actually declined, because solar power equipment is becoming less expensive. Jeff Bell, “Turning Point Solar Ready to Move Ahead on Eastern Ohio Project,” Business First, Dec. 7, 2012.
31. Jeff Bell, “AEP Setback Dims Prospects for $180M Turning Point Solar Project,” Business First, Jan. 9, 2013; Dan Gearino, “PUCO Deals Blow to AEP Solar Project,” The Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 10, 2013. The Dispatch has also reported that the chair of PUCO, Todd Snitchler, is firmly opposed to green energy.See Darrell Rowland, “PUCO chief blasts green energy on Twitter,” The Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 12, 2013.
32. Editorial, “Broken School Funding Program Is Showing Cracks Even in the Most Affluent Districts,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 29, 2011.
33. For more information on the evidence-based strategy, see the Ohio Education Matters website.
34. Reginald Fields, “Ohio Gov. Strickland Defends School Funding Plan that Kasich Wants to Scrap,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 22, 2010. Once Kasich’s budget was actually announced, we discovered that his principal approach to public schools was to drastically underfund them.
35. Editorial, “Gov.-Elect Kasich Is Wrong on Use of Federal Rail Funds,” The Youngstown Vindicator, Nov. 27, 2010.
36. Jonathan Riskind, “Ohio, Wisconsin, High–Speed Rail Money to Go Elsewhere,” The Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 9, 2010.
37. Reginald Fields, “Governor–Elect John Kasich Hints at Broader Privatization Plans,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 7, 2011.
38. Bob Ortega, “Arizona Private Prisons Slammed by Report,” The Arizona Republic, Feb. 15, 2012; Bob Ortega, “Arizona Prison Oversight Lacking for Private Facilities,” The Arizona Republic, Aug. 7, 2011..
39. Joe Vardon, “JobsOhio Works Amid Funding Question,” The Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 2, 2013; Editorial, “JobsOhio Can’t Be Allowed to Hide From the Public,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 20, 2013.
40. William Hershey, “AG Cordray Blasts Kasich Plan to Privatize Economic Development,” Dayton Daily News, Aug. 23, 2010; Jeff Bell, “Michigan Woes Show Limits of Kasich’s JobsOhio Plan,” Business First, Aug. 30, 2010.
41. “Reality Check: Indiana Job Numbers Don’t Add Up,” WTHR, March 1, 2010.
42. Laura Bischoff, “Kasich Tells Lobbyists, Help or Get Out of the Way,” Dayton Daily News, Nov. 4, 2010.
43. Mark Kovac, “Senate Bill 5/Issue 2: How Did We Get Here?,” The Youngstown Vindicator, Oct. 23, 2011.
Chapter 2: Disaster Republicanism
1. Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2008).
2. Ibid., 6. As will become clear later in the chapter, it is important to note that the man who called for the attack on public schools was economist Milton Friedman, a devotee of Frederick A. Hayek and the Austrian school of economics.
3. “As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Government Pays High Price,” The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2012.
4. Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (New York: Harper, 2007); Paul Krugman, “Amity Shlaes Strikes Again,” The New York Times, Nov. 19, 2008; Arthur C. Brooks, The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future (New York: Basic Books, 2010); Bryan Caplan, “If Only: A Review of Arthur Brooks’ The Battle,” Library of Economics and Liberty.
5. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940 (New York: Harper & Row, 1963).
6. For a review of the impact of the Wagner Act, see David Brody, Labor Embattled: History, Power, Rights (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005), and Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks to Briefcases: A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003).
7. Frederick A. Von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (London: Routledge, 1944).
8. Greg Sargent, “Mitt Romney: ‘America’s Economy Runs on Freedom,’” The Washington Post, May 18, 2012.
9. Nicholas Wapshott, Keynes-Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics (New York: Norton & Co., 2011) 100–101.
10. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002) 124–125; Jeffrey D. Sachs, “Welfare State Beyond Ideology,” Scientific American, November 2006; George Orwell, The [London] Observer, April 9, 1944.
11. David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 3, 20–21.
12. “Special Report: Is Greed Good? Only If It Is Properly Governed,” The Economist, May 16, 2002.
13. Yergin and Stanislaw, 123–131.
14. Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan (New York: Norton, 2009) 45–52.
15. Ibid., 60.
16. Michael Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (Chapel Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 2011) 6–7; David Farber, The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism: A Short History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010) 16–17.
17. Farber, 30–31.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 35.
20. Ibid., 35–36.
21. William Leuchtenburg, In the Shadow of FDR (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985) 49.
22. Louis Galambos, ed., The Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower (Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) 13: 1385: 13: 1357.
23. Philips-Fein, ix–xii.
24. Ibid., 100.
25. Ibid., 100–102.
26. Ibid., 103–105.
27. Kari Frederickson, The Dixie Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932–1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000); Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
28. Daniel J. Galvin, Presidential Party Building: Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010) 65–66.
29. Ibid., 67.
30. Ibid., 67–68.
31. Crespino, 3.
32. Farber, 89–90.
33. Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative (New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1961) 48–49.
34. Geoffrey Kabaservice, Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party from Eisenhower to the Tea Party (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) 92–93.
35. Ibid., 93–94.
36. Ibid., 102.
37. Ibid., 103; William A Rusher, “Crossroads for the GOP,” National Review, Feb. 12, 1963, 109–112.
38. Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963–1994 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996) xiv.
39. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (New York: Penguin Press, 2004) 76–78. Micklethwait and Wooldridge deserve a great deal of credit in tracing the money behind the right-wing ideology mill.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 79.
43. Ibid., 79.
44. Ibid., 79.
45. Jacob Weisberg, “Happy Birthday, Heritage Foundation!” Slate, Jan 9, 1998. Weisberg is quoting Will Marshall, then president of the New Democrat Progressive Policy Institute.
46. Ibid.
47. Robert Novak, “Father of Supply Side,” Sept. 1, 2005, CNN website.
48. Arthur Laffer, “The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future,” June 1, 2004. Heritage Foundation website.
49. Ibid.
50. Jude Wanniski, “Will There Be a Budget?” Memos on the Margin, 1995, Polyconomics website.
51. Jude Wanniski, “John Kasich, Presidential Timber,” Memos on the Margin, 1998. Polyconomics Institute website.
52. Jude Wanniski, “Farrakhan at Our Conference,” Polyconomics Institute website. See also Joyce Price, “Kasich Gets Farrakhan’s Praise, Kemp Also Has Minister’s Respect,” The Washington Times, March 2, 1997.
53. Review by Benjamin J. Cohen, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 10: 10 (Summer 1979), 359–360.
54. Brian Lamb, “Q and A with David Stockman,” C-Span, April 2, 2013.
55. Weisberg, ibid.
56. Harvey, 25.
57. Ibid., 26–27.
58. Jonathan Chait, “2012 or Never,” New York Magazine, Feb. 26, 2012.
59. Ibid. This well-researched theory was first introduced by John Judas and Ruy Teixeira, The Emerging Democratic Majority (New York: Scribner, 2004).
60. E.J. Dionne, “Mitt Romney’s Class Problem,” The Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2012.
61. Jim DeMint, Last Chance: Saving American from Economic Collapse (New York: Center Street, 2012). Since Republican policies are largely responsible for the 2008 economic collapse, it stretches reality for DeMint to suggest that he and his party have something to offer at this point. No surprise that Tea Party favorite Rand Paul wrote an introduction to DeMint’s book.
62. Sabrina Eaton, “In Evenly Split Ohio, Redistricting Gives GOP 12–4 Edge in Congressional Seats,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 11, 2012.
63. National Public Radio interview with Nina Totenberg, aired July 6, 2012.
64. Bruce Bartlett, “Revenge of the Reality–Based Community: My Life on the Republican Right and How I Saw it All Go Wrong,” The American Conservative, Nov. 26, 2012.
65. Ibid.
66. For a perceptive analysis of the authoritarian aspects of Republican ideology, see Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler, Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Chapter 3: The Battle Begins
1. UE is an abbreviation for the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, a union that represents 35,000 workers across the country.
2. At the AAUP’s national meeting in June 2012 in Washington DC, Herman and Kilpatrick were jointly given the Georgina M. Smith Award for their important roles in defending the faculty through the defeat of Senate Bill 5. The Smith Award is only occasionally given, and only for truly exceptional service to the profession. For the sake of eliminating any confusion, I should note that Sara Kilpatrick was married on May 21, 2011, and prior to that her name was Sara Kaminski.
3. Joe Guillen, “What’s Really in Senate Bill 5?” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 20, 2011.
4. This testimony is taken from the notes of Sara Kilpatrick, AAUP-OC executive director, who was in the room.
5. Staff reports, “Public Unions Ready to Fight GOP Proposals,” The Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 10, 2011. OCSEA is an abbreviation for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association.
6. AFSCME is an abbreviation for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
7. Reginald Fields, “Police and Fire Unions Say They Will Make Republicans Pay for Proposal Limiting Collective Bargaining,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 24, 2011; Jim Siegel, “Public Workers Ready to Fight GOP Proposals,” The Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 10, 2011; Joe Guillen, “Overhaul of State’s Collective Bargaining Law Proposed in Ohio Senate,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 9, 2011.
8. Cliff Peale, “Kasich: Higher Ed Must Tighten Belt,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 8, 2010.
9. Testimony presented by Hayes can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTdquroj8R0.
10. John McNay, “Jones Bill Will Lead to a Race to the Bottom in Ohio,” Hamilton Journal-News, Feb. 18, 2011.
11. A transcript of Grayson’s testimony.
12. Dr. Fichtenbaum’s testimony.
13. Jeffrey Keefe, “Are Ohio Public Employees Over–Compensated?” Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #296, Feb. 10, 2011.
14. Joe Guillen, “Union Protesters Locked Out of Statehouse, Accord–ing to Democrats, Who Call on Kasich to Let Them In,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 22, 2011. The Ohio Senate Democrats produced some video, and much more can be found on the internet.
15. “Growth in Administrators Outstrips Growth in Faculty,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Aug. 17, 2010; John T. McNay, “Ohio College Plan Left Out the Faculty,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 2, 2013.
Chapter 4: GOP Forces Senate Bill 5 on Ohio
1. Taft, Stettinius, and Hollister website.
2. Kris Maher and James Hagerty, “Ohio GOP Revises Union Bill,” The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2011; Julie Kent, “Ohio Republicans Reconfigure Senate Committee to Ensure Passage of SB5,” The Cleveland Leader, March 3, 2012.
3. “Senate Bill 5 Pits Housemates Against Each Other,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 4, 2011.
4. The Ohio Senate debate and final vote on Senate Bill 5 occurred on March 2, 2011. Video of the testimony is available at www.ohiochannel.org, and the material for this chapter has been taken from that original source.
5. Deborah Herman and John McNay, “Senate Bill 5 Passes—Amended Version Worse Than the Original Bill,” AAUP Works, AAUPUC Chapter Bulletin, March 2, 2011.
6. Mark Bousquet, How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (New York: New York University Press, 2008) 211–223.
7. Sheldon Gelman, “Adopting Ohio Senate Bill 5: The Role of the University Presidents,” Albany Law Review, 75:1, 2011/2012; Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). Ginsberg is also the co-author of We the People: An Introduction to American Politics (New York: WW Norton & Co., 2011), the most widely used textbook in introductory courses on American government and politics in the nation’s colleges and universities.
8. Ginsberg, 2.
9. Ibid.
10. Gelman, 512, 533.
11. Ibid., 518.
12. Ibid., 519.
13. Ibid.
14. “By a Wide Margin, Bowling Green Faculty Vote for AAUP Union,” AAUP website, Oct. 20, 2010.
15. Gelman, 524–525.
16. Ibid., 527–528; Tom Troy, “BGSU Officials Linked to Role in SB 5 Draft,” The Toledo Blade, Sept. 22, 2011, accessed July 21, 2012.
17. Ibid.
18. Ida Liezkovszky, “Higher Ed Unions Say Issue 2 Would Be a Death Sentence,” State Impact, Oct. 21, 2011.
Chapter 5: Gathering Forces
1. William J. Cronon, “Wisconsin’s Radical Break,” The New York Times, March 21, 2011.
2. William Cronon’s blog contains a detailed chronology as well as many links to the national news coverage of the attack he faced.
3. Editorial, “A Shabby Crusade in Wisconsin,” The New York Times, March 25, 2011; Greg Sargent, “Wisconsin GOP: You’re Damn Right We Requested Walker Critic’s Email,” The Washington Post, March 25, 2011; James Fallows, “‘Have You No Sense of Decency?’: The William Cronon Story,” The Atlantic, March 25, 2011.
4. Chancellor Martin’s response can be found on Cronon’s blog, Scholar as Citizen.
5. For more on Cronon’s experience see, Todd Finkelmeyer, “UW’s Cronon Sees ‘Intimidation’ in GOP Request,” The Capital Times, April 7, 2011.
6. I’ve reconstructed much of this from memory, since I was in contact with the organizers and attended the protest. But I also owe much to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) website. On the one-year anniversary of the Cincinnati protest, on April 27, 2012, CMD marked the date with a detailed story that recapped much of the event and recognized its historic importance. Importantly, CMD also provides online a copy of the letter the protest team submitted to ALEC.
7. Fabien Tepper, “Getting Deep Inside ALEC: Local Activist Exposes Decades of Secret Legislation,” City Beat, Aug. 3, 2011.
8. Beau Hodal, “Quid pro Status Quo: ALEC & State–Sanctioned Corruption in Ohio,” Center for Media and Democracy.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Joel Rogers and Laure Dresser, “ALEC Exposed: Business Domination, Inc.,” The Nation, July 12, 2011.
13. “ALEC in Ohio: The Corporate Special Interests That Help Write Ohio’s Laws,” People for the American Way.
14. The Nation, Ibid.
15. Laura A. Bischoff, William Hershey, and Cornelius Frolik, “Democrats Vow to Put Bargaining Rights on Ballot if Senate Bill 5 OK’d,” Dayton Daily News, Feb. 23, 2011.
16. IBEW is an abbreviation for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
17. Bruce Bostick, “Ohio Fight Back Drive Announced at Town Hall Meeting,” The Free Press (Columbus), April 1, 2011.
18. A.J. Stokes, a consultant for Jonathan Varner and Associates, was formerly majority chief of staff for the Democrats in the Ohio House. Before his legislative involvement, he worked for the Teamsters.
19. Ironically, 2011 was the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, in which 146 women—mostly immigrants and members of the International Lady Garment Workers Union—were killed on March 25, 1911. The Ludlow Massacre took place when Colorado National Guard and guards from a Rockefeller mining company attacked a camp of striking miners on April 20, 1914, killing between 19 and 25 people. The Anaconda Road Massacre was an incident in which Anaconda Copper Mining Co. guards fired on striking miners in Butte, Montana, on April 21, 1920. The guards hit 17 miners in the back as they tried to flee, wounding 16 and killing 1.
Chapter 6: Extremism’s High Tide
1. As a postscript to the free speech zone issue, a libertarian student group, Young Americans for Liberty, with the help of the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed a federal lawsuit against UC because of the zone and related regulations. A federal judge later ruled that the zone was unconstitutional, and no such restrictions on free speech exist at UC today. Further, I argued at the time that Gov. Kasich’s visit could not be deemed a private meeting because the news media had been invited. As a former journalist, I know that, by definition, any meeting where there is a blanket invitation to the news media is a public meeting, and thus we had a right to be there. I later confirmed this with David Marburger, a Cleveland attorney specializing in open-meetings law. He wrote, “In my view, you are correct. Once the officials allow the journalism community to attend, only the logistics of physical space could justify discriminating against the rest of the public. The journalists are there—not b/c of some special interest that they have that’s distinct from the public’s interest—but b/c they are conduits to the gen’l public. So, absent space limitations that would justify allowing only reporters to attend, the decision to exclude others seems to me to violate the First Amendment, which bars gov’tal decisions from arbitrarily denying the public access to information about their gov’t.”
2. The Ohio House debate and final vote on Senate Bill 5 occurred on March 30, 2011. Video of the testimony is available at www.ohiochannel.org, and the material for this chapter has been taken from that source.
3. Laura Bischoff, “Kasich to Lobbyists: Get on the Bus,” Springfield News-Sun, Nov. 5, 2010.
4. The Toledo Blade pointed out an interesting conflict for Wachtmann: “State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon) owns a bottling company that gets its water from Napoleon, which draws from the Lake Erie watershed. He also sits on the board of directors of the International Bottled Water Association. Yet neither he nor—apparently—the Office of the Legislative Inspector General thought that should stop him from sponsoring legislation to significantly increase the volume of water that companies—such as his—are allowed to draw from that same watershed.” Editorial, “Political Ethics,” The Toledo Blade, Jan. 11, 2013.
5. Rachel Lloyd, “Meet the Candidates: Six Introduce Themselves at Town Hall Meeting,” Sidney Daily News, Feb. 27, 2012.
6. Mary McCleary, “Editorial: Control Compensation to Solve School Funding Crisis in Sidney,” Buckeye Institute website. McCleary is identified as a “policy analyst.”
7. Not surprisingly, McCleary was a 2009 magna cum laude graduate of Hillsdale College, an incubator for right-wing extremism, where she majored in economics. According to the Buckeye Institute, McCleary received “Department Honors for her outstanding work as an undergraduate.” She was also awarded a “prestigious” Koch Foundation Fellowship. Hillsdale College has been on the AAUP’s censure list since 1988. This is a list of academic bad actors that typically make the list by showing a lack of respect for shared governance or, in Hillsdale’s case, academic freedom. While a statement on the Hillsdale College webpage says that today the college is a “very different place,” it states that it has never worked to remove the AAUP designation because it does not respect the right of the national faculty-driven organization to be an arbiter of such an issue.
8. Reginald Fields, “Ohio Gov. Kasich Using Collective Bargaining Bill as Fundraising Tool Even Before He Signs It,” The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, March 31, 2011.
9. The ceremonial signing of Senate Bill 5 can be viewed at www.ohiochannel.org.
Chapter 7: The Real Fight Begins
1. Speech at April 4, 2011, rally in Dayton by Rudy Fichtenbaum. Copy in possession of the author.
2. Sen. John F. Kennedy, “Labor Speaks for Public Interest,” Federation News (Chicago Federation of Labor), Sept. 5, 1960, papers of John F. Kennedy, pre-presidential papers, presidential campaign files, 196, 03 September 1959–20 September 1960, undated, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.
3. Letter in possession of the author.
4. Ohio Catholic Conference website, accessed Sept. 23, 2012.
5. Rachel Richardson, “Ohio NAACP, Faith Leaders, Call on Better Ohio to Denounce Huckabee SB 5 Comments,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 18, 2011.
6. Dale Schaefer, “Unions Playing Hardball on Ohio Campuses,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, May 6, 2011; see also: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/5/unions–playing–hardball–on–ohio–campuses/
7. John T. McNay, “Faculty Integrally Involved in AAUP at UC, and in Contracts,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, May 15, 2011.
8. Note in possession of the author.
9. Darrell Rowland, “Poll Shows Senate Bill 5 Could Be Repealed,” The Columbus Dispatch, May 18, 2011.
10. Jim Provance, “Labor Law’s Defenders Gear Up to Fight Repeal: Battle Lines Drawn Over Senate Bill 5,” The Toledo Blade, May 31, 2011.
11. James Sprague, “Political Email Petitioning,” The News-Record, June 3, 2011; Red State blog, June 3, 2011.
12. Deborah Herman and John McNay, “SB 5 Repeal Petition Signatures Hit Astounding Number: 714,137,” Insights member newsletter, June 17, 2011.
13. “Ohio Secretary of State Determines SB 5 Referendum Can’t Be Split Up,” The Columbus Dispatch, June 23, 2011.
14. Joe Vardon, “SB 5 Opponents Make a Statement in a Big Way,” The Columbus Dispatch, June 30, 2011.
15. Jim Provance, “Record 1.3 Million Back Vote to Torpedo Senate Bill 5,” The Toledo Blade, June 30, 2011.
16. Mark Kovac, “1.3 Million Seek Vote on SB 5,” The Youngstown Vindicator, June 30, 2011.
17. Joe Guillen, “Group Opposed to Senate Bill 5 Says It Has Enough Signatures for a Voter Referendum,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 17, 2011.
Chapter 8: War on Many Fronts
1. Andrew J. Tobias, “ALEC Helps Companies Write Ohio Laws,” Dayton Daily News, May 26, 2012.
2. Cliff Peale, “Kasich Touting Plan for Charter Universities,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 24, 2011.
3. Plunderbund, “Because Charter Schools Worked Out So Well, Kasich Says ‘Let’s Try Charter Universities,’” Feb. 28, 2011.
4. Carol Bliczky, “Petro Revisits Charter Universities,” Akron Beacon Journal, March 2, 2011.
5. Ibid.
6. Encarnacion Pyle, “Charter College Idea Has Appeal,” The Columbus Dispatch, March 6, 2011.
7. Sara Kaminski, “Charter Universities Would Be Bad for Students, Taxpayers,” The Columbus Dispatch, March 12, 2011.
8. Ibid.
9. Mark Niquette, “Kasich Takes to Airwaves to Pitch Ohio Budget That May Sell State Prisons,” Bloomberg News, March 15, 2011.
10. Laura Bischoff and Christopher Magan, “Deep Cuts, Privatization Fill Kasich’s First Budget,” Springfield News-Sun, March 16, 2011.
11. Ibid.
12. State of Ohio Executive Budget, Book Five: The Reforms Book, p. 16.
13. Report in possession of the author.
14. Gongwer News Service, “Budget Panelists Question Charter University Plan,” April 4, 2011.
15. John McNay, “Charter Universities in Ohio Are Not the Solution,” Hamilton Journal-News, May 13, 2011. I have to credit my colleague, Deborah Herman, for the Trojan horse metaphor. When articles appeared in the Journal-News, they might also appear in other Cox Media newspapers in southwest Ohio, such as the Dayton Daily News (the flagship of the group), The Middletown Journal, or The Springfield News-Sun.
16. In Washington state, the University of Washington did increase tuition in 2011 by 20 percent and also approved a 16 percent hike in 2012. Washington State University increased tuition 16 percent each year. In Texas, after a more than 130 percent increase in the last 10 years, the Board of Regents have tried to slow down tuition increases.
17. Many of the videos can still be found on the internet by searching for “charter university UC” and similar terms.
18. An example of the failure of shared governance in a non-AAUP institution occurred at Miami in 2011. Essentially, a new regional campus “division” (Miami’s term for colleges and schools) was created, disconnecting the regional campus faculty from Miami’s main campus in Oxford, a division based solely on geography rather than academic discipline. The change was imposed despite overwhelming opposition not only from the faculty at the Hamilton and Middletown campuses but also from faculty on the main Oxford Campus. The University Senate opposed the move when it came up for a vote. In spite of all this committed opposition to a bad idea, the administration simply imposed the change. “This was an egregious affront to the notion of shared governance,” a Miami faculty member told me.
19. Laura Bischoff, “Ohio Plans to Create Charter Universities That Would Take Less State Money,” Dayton Daily News, Aug. 10, 2011.
20. Ibid.
21. The DAIR report may be found here.
22. Karen Farkas, “Plan to Create ‘Enterprise Universities’ in Ohio Remains Stalled,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 2012.
Chapter 9: “Stage Is Set for Battle”
1. German Lopez, “Jon Husted: Secretary of Suppression,” City Beat (Cincinnati), Nov. 7, 2012.
2. Mark Crispin Miller, “None Dare Call It Stolen: Ohio, the Election, and America’s Servile Press,” Harper’s Magazine, August 2005.
3. John Caniglia, “Congressional Democrats Bash Voting Law as State Lawmakers Eye Repeal,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 7, 2012.
4. Testimony on House Bill 194 can be viewed on www.ohiochannel.org
5. “Anti–SB 5 and Anti–HB 194 Groups Rally at UT,” The Toledo Blade, Oct. 12, 2011.
6. Joe Guillen, “Another Voter Referendum: Ohio Secretary of State Certifies Signatures to Put Elections Law on Next Year’s Ballot,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 9, 2011.
7. “Sneak Attack,” Akron Beacon Journal, March 27, 2012. Accessed Dec. 9, 2012.
8. Joe Guillen, “Ohio House Votes to Repeal Controversial Election Law,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 8, 2012.
9. Darrell Rowland, “Ohio Lawmaker Quits After Drunken–Driving Scandal,” The Columbus Dispatch, July 18, 2011.
10. Connie Schultz, “An Anti–Abortion Ohio Legislator’s Embarrassing Night Out,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 3, 2011.
Chapter 10: “Stage Is Set for Battle”
1. Letter in possession of the author.
2. “SB 5 Makes Ballot; Stage Is Set for Battle,” The Columbus Dispatch, July 22, 2011; Joe Guillen, “Ohio’s Collective Bargaining Law Will Be on the November Ballot,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 21, 2011.
3. Mark Naymik, “Newt Gingrich Endorses Ohio’s New Collective Bargaining Law,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 14, 2011.
4. Brent Larkin, “Cut Ohio’s Losses by Cutting a Deal on SB 5,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 25, 2011; “Meet in the Middle,” The Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 7, 2011.
5. Jim Provance, “Kasich Offers to Tone Down SB 5 Language if Referendum is Pulled From the Ballot,” The Toledo Blade, Aug. 17, 2011.
6. Reginald Fields, “Gov. John Kasich Asks Union Leaders to Compromise on SB 5; Union Group Says Repeal it, Then We’ll Talk,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 17, 2011.
7. Ibid.
8. Joe Guillen, “Senate Bill 5 Compromise Unlikely in Coming Days, but Another Version of the Bill Could Re–Emerge in the Future,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 19, 2011.
9. “Kasich Stages ‘Talks,’ Assails No-Show Unions,” The Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 19, 2011; Reginald Fields, “Unions No–Shows at Gov. John Kasich’s Compromise Meeting on Collective Bargaining Law,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 19, 2011.
10. Phillip Morris, “Gov. John Kasich, You Asked for the Fight, Now Fight,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 19, 2011.
11. Ohio Conference AAUP Communications Committee, Aug. 22, 2011, in possession of the author.
12. Cary Nelson, message to national AAUP members, Aug. 25, 2011, in possession of the author.
13. Joe Guillen, “Pro–Senate Bill 5 Campaign Chooses to Shield Donors’ Contribution Amounts,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 17, 2011.
14. Laura Bischoff, “Pro-Issue 2 Group Keeps Trail of Money Hidden,” Dayton Daily News, Oct. 25, 2011.
15. Truth-O-Meter, “Alliance for America’s Future Says Ohio Can’t Afford to Pay 100 Percent of Employees Benefits,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 11, 2011; Laura Bischoff, “$38M Raised in Issue 2 Battle,” Dayton Daily News, Oct. 27, 2011; John Nichols, “How Liz Cheney Is Funding the War on Labor Rights in Ohio,” The Nation, Oct. 18, 2011.
16. Staff, “Cincinnati Chamber Comes Out Against SB 5 Repeal,” Business Courier, July 19, 2011.
17. Mark Naymik, “Gov. Ted Strickland and Challenger John Kasich Figure Out Strategies, Must Sell Them to Voters,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 2, 2010.
18. David Osborne, Beverly Stein, Jim Chrisinger, “Crisis as Opportunity,” Public Strategies Group website, accessed Jan. 15, 2013. Much more on BFO can be found in David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson, The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis (New York: Basic Books, 2004).
19. Ohio Chamber of Commerce, “Redesigning Ohio: Transforming Government into a 21st Century Institution,”; See also, ALEC’s State Toolkit.
20. Mark Kovac, “House Panel OKs SB 5,” The Youngstown Vindicator, March 30, 2011.
21. “The Chamber of Commerce Has Been Transformed into One of the Most Powerful Political Forces in Washington,” The Economist, April 23, 2012.
22. Tom Hamburger, “Chamber of Commerce Vows to Punish Anti–Business Candidates,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 8, 2008.
23. Ibid.
24. Erik Lipton, Mike McIntire, and Don Van Natta Jr., “Top Corporations Aid US Chamber of Commerce Campaign,” The New York Times, Oct. 21, 2010.
25. Rachel Richardson, “Same Old Arguments Heard at Last Night’s SB 5 Debate,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 23, 2011.
26. “Debate Overview: Yes or No on Issue 2?”, WKYC Television, Cleveland, Oct. 26, 2011.
Chapter 11: The Middle Class Defended
1. Document in possession of the author.
2. Letter in possession of the author.
3. John T. McNay, “The War on Higher Education,” Passport, 42:2, (Sept. 2011) 40–41. See also “The War on Higher Education,” History News Network, Sept. 11, 2011.
4. Editorial, “Youngstown State University Cannot Afford Faculty Strike,” Youngstown Vindicator, Aug. 14, 2011.
5. Staff, “YSU Faculty Calls Off Planned Strike,” Youngstown Vindicator, Aug. 25, 2011.
6. Cliff Peale, “Cincinnati State Teachers Go on Strike,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 24, 2011.
7. Note in possession of the author.
8. All of the advertisements can easily be found on YouTube.
9. It is true that some language in the bill’s amendments was intended to include safety equipment as a subject on which the union could negotiate. But the overall impact of the bill, by sharply curtailing negotiated subjects and by eliminating binding arbitration, made it so that even if the union completely disagreed with equipment and staffing levels, management could simply impose what it wanted. So, in reality, the Republicans had inserted a verbiage change without substantive meaning.
10. Jason Guillen, “Anti–Senate Bill 5 Group Debuts First TV Commercial in Campaign to Repeal Law,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 2, 2011; Jim Provance, “Senate Bill 5 Backer Defends Bell Ad Timing,” The Toledo Blade, Sept. 8, 2011. As of this writing (December 2012), Mauk is executive director of the Ohio Republican Party.
11. PolitiFact Ohio, “We Are Ohio Claims SB 5 Would Make it Harder for Nurses to Care for Patients,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept. 27, 2011.
12. Jim Siegel, “Recut Television Ad Makes SB 5 Opponent Look Like Supporter,” The Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 14, 2011.
13. Ibid.
14. Henry J. Gomez, “SB 5 Ad War Heats Up as Grandmother Complains about Her Inclusion in Supporters’ Commercial,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 11, 2011.
15. Siegel, ibid.
16. Gomez, ibid.
17. Editorial, “Issue 2 Ad Treats Opponent Unfairly,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 13, 2011.
18. Joe Vardon, “Kasich Backers Join SB 5 TV Ad War,” The Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 7, 2011; Campaign Ad Watch, “Reasonable, Make Ohio Great,” The Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 30, 2011.
19. Truth-o-Meter, “Building a Better Ohio Says Public Workers Make 43 Percent More in Wages and Benefits than Private Sector Workers,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 14, 2011.
20. Newsletter in possession of author.
21. Steven Greenhouse, “Ohio Wages Fierce Fight on Collective Bargaining,” The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2011.
22. Jeff Bell, “SB 5 Support Fading, Along With Kasich’s Approval,” Business First, Oct. 25, 2011.
23. Darrell Rowland, “Poll Shows Voters Still Sour on Issue 2,” The Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 25, 2011.
24. Editorial, “No on Issue 2,” Akron Beacon Journal, Oct. 22, 2011.
25. Editorial, “No on Issue 2 But . . . ,” The Toledo Blade, Oct. 30, 2011.
26. Marty Kich and Dave Witt, “Ohio’s Faculty Unions: Front and Center,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, letter to the editor, Nov. 2, 2011.
27. Kaustuv Basu, “Battle for Survival,” Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 27, 2011.
28. Kaustuv Basu, “Solidarity in Ohio,” Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 8, 2011.
29. Ibid.
30. Thomas Suddes, “The People of Ohio Spoke on Senate Bill 5, but Gov. John Kasich Isn’t a Listener,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 12, 2011.
Conclusion: “A Rendezvous with Destiny”—If We Choose
1. Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (Boston: Little Brown, 1990) 202–203. There is, of course, a massive historiography on Roosevelt and the New Deal, but of particular value are H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Anchor Books, 2008) and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Age of Roosevelt (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957). Albert Fried, FDR and His Enemies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001) also offers a valuable perspective.
2. Michael J. Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012).
3. Kevin Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority (New York: Arlington House, 1969). See also Daniel Bell, ed., The Radical Right (London: Transaction Publishers, 2002).
4. Warren Weaver Jr., “Prejudice and the Presidential Election,” The New York Times, Sept. 21, 1969, accessed Jan 17, 2013.
5. Peter G. Bourne, Jimmy Carter: A Comprehensive Biography from Plains to the Post-Presidency (New York: Scribner, 1997).
6. Kevin Phillips, The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath (New York: Random House, 1990).
7. Ibid., xvii.
8. Ibid., 76–115, 179–181.
9. Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012) 142–143. See also Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, eds., Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005).
10. Joseph McCartin, Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
11. Staff, “Income Inequality in America: The 99 percent,” The Economist, Oct. 28, 2012.
12. All the student letters and more are in the author’s possession.
13. Laura Bischoff, “OSU President Expenses in the Millions,” Dayton Daily News, Sept. 22, 2012. In November of 2012, the trustees gave Gee a 3 percent raise and a bonus totaling $333,812, to bring his total yearly compensation to $2.14 million.
14. Cliff Peale, “Williams to Get $1.267M Severance from UC,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 24, 2012. Of course, much but not all of the wealth showered on Williams and others is required by contract. But that certainly begs the question of why these arrangements are agreed to and then unnecessarily enhanced. For more on Williams, see Matthew Nordin, “Fox 19 Investigates: Former UC President’s Extravagant Lifestyle,” Fox 19 Action News, Nov. 20, 2012. Daniel Burnett, “KSU Notes 242 Trustees Betray Students by Boosting President’s Pay,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 13, 2011.
15. Aaron Marshall, “Gov. John Kasich’s Top Staffers Earn More Than Gov. Ted Strickland’s, but Overall Budget Less,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 12, 2011.
16. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism (New York: Basic Books, 2012) xiv.
17. Joe Hallett, “State Lawmakers Stray Far from Their Constituents,” The Columbus Dispatch, April 21, 2013.
18. Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (New York: Norton, 2012) 6–7.
19. Ibid, 64–65.
20. Ibid.
21.Ibid., 175.
22. Richard Thaler, “What the Rich Don’t Need,” The New York Times, Sept. 25, 2010.
23. Lawrence Mishel, “Unions, Inequality, and Faltering Middle Class Wages,” Economic Policy Institute website, Aug. 29, 2012.
24. David J. Lynch, “Corporate Profits Soar as Executives Attack Obama Policy,” Bloomberg News, Jan 17, 2013.
25. Bruce Bartlett, “Revenge of the Reality–Based Community: My Life on the Republican Right and How I Saw It All Go Wrong,” The American Conservative, Nov. 26, 2012.
26. Stiglitz, 281–282.
27. Paul Krugman, “Wisconsin Power Play,” The New York Times, Feb. 20, 2011.
28. Stiglitz, 283; Alexander J. Field, A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011).
29. Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
30. Paul Kostyu, “Kasich Says 2-Year Budget Has $1 Billion Surplus,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 30, 2013.
31. Kevin Phillips, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (New York: Broadway Books, 2002) 422.
32. For sources of these and other needed reforms, see Stiglitz, 265–290; Noah, 179–195; Mann and Ornstein, 107–201; Ginsberg, 201–219, Phillips, Wealth and Democracy, 405–422.
